Arun Kumar Chowdhury v. The State Of West Bengal And ORS.

18.03.2025 rpan/07 WPLRT 37 of 2025 Arun Kumar Chowdhury - Versus - The State of West Bengal & Others Mr. Mir Anowar ... for the Petitioner.

Mr. Md. T. M. Siddiqui, Ms. Debdooti Dutta, Mr. Suddhadeb Adak ... for the State/Respondents.

Affidavit-of-service, as filed, be kept on record. At the inception, Mr. Anowar, learned advocate appearing for the writ petitioner submits that the respondent nos. 7 to 11 have been inadvertently impleaded as party respondents and prays for leave to expunge their names and to correct the cause title. Such prayer is considered and allowed. Leave is granted to the learned advocate-on-record of the writ petitioner to make necessary corrections in the cause title of the present writ petition.

Mr. Anowar submits that the petitioner is presently aged about 76 years and the original application (in short, OA) being OA 866 of 2009 filed by him way back in the year 2009 is yet to be disposed of. Such delay in disposal of the OA is too long in a system where justice is supposed to be swift but deliberate.

He submits that in course of hearing of the OA 866 of 2009, an order was passed on 16th March, 2022, observing that another original application, being OA 2462 of 2019 has been preferred by one Mihir Hazra and others and by the said order, the learned Tribunal directed both the OAs [OA 866 of 2009 and OA 2462 of 2019] to be listed on the same date for convenience of disposal. However, till date the OAs have not been disposed of and he prays for issuance of necessary direction upon the learned Tribunal for expeditious disposal of the same.

Mr. Siddiqui, learned Additional Government Pleader enters appearance on behalf of the State/respondents and submits that both the OAs have been fixed for hearing on 8th April, 2025. It is for the learned Tribunal to regulate its own procedure in respect of the cases on Board for effective disposal and to ensure that the cases are disposed of within a reasonable period of time.

Records reveal that the OA 866 of 2009 is pending before the learned Tribunal for more than 15 years. The writ petitioner herein is also aged about 76 years.

In such circumstances, we dispose of the writ petition directing the learned Tribunal to finally decide and dispose of both the original applications along with all the connected applications on the returnable date

i.e., on 8th April, 2025 or as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of six weeks thereafter, without granting any unnecessary adjournment to either of the parties.

There shall, however, be no order as to costs. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties, upon compliance of all requisite formalities.

(Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.) (Tapabrata Chakraborty, J.)